November 19, 2011Exit Interview Accelerant

Hello...

I was fired from my job this week. As if that wasn't humiliating enough the ghost had to get in on the action. I was in the boss' office going through the motions of the exit interview, the crap they feel is your payment for, I don't know, being graced by their presence for so many years. The boss was moving around the office while I stood in place. He was never big on sitting, preferring to be on the move constantly, like that was more productive. He was saying, "...I don't believe it was all your fault..." when one of the filing cabinets slid out away from the others. He turned toward the scraping of metal just in time to see me reaching for the cabinet.

The cabinet spun around ninety-degrees and the drawers flew open with the motion, spewing the files everywhere. The cabinet crashed to the floor, hard, almost smashing the boss' left foot with one of the open drawers. He said, "Maybe that incident throwing the mug at the customer wasn't an isolated incident. Maybe you've been sabotaging the company."

I tried to protest but then he brought up, "The destroyed equipment, rearranging things after hours, the unlocked doors that maintenance keeps finding... What else have you been doing in your crusade to ruins us?"

Then came the worst when he concluded, "Get out, I changed my mind about references and seeing where things could have gone differently. Get out! Go now before I call the cops!' Then his voice lowered, "I don't ever want to see you again for anything, or hear that you had anybody call here for anything."

I left immediately. That was Tuesday. I still don't know what to do. This has to be the worst time of the year to try and get a new job. The college students will be snapping everything up if they aren't already attached to a position. It will take time to get real work like my last job. So what do I do in the meantime? What a nightmare.